"China Finance" | Actively Cultivating and Promoting Financial Culture with Chinese Characteristics – Providing Solid Support for the High-Quality Development of the Gold Market

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, "To promote high-quality development of finance and build a financial power, we must combine the rule of law with the rule of virtue, vigorously carry forward the fine traditional Chinese culture, and actively cultivate a financial culture with Chinese characteristics." As an infrastructure unit of China's gold market, the Shanghai Gold Exchange should be supported by the financial culture with Chinese characteristics, vigorously promote the fine traditional Chinese culture in the gold market, firmly establish the concept that national interests are paramount and people's interests are supreme, and make the "Five Dos and Five Don'ts" financial culture with Chinese characteristics truly become the work orientation and action criterion for promoting the high-quality development of the gold market, and become the behavioral habits and conscious guidelines that practitioners in the gold market follow unconsciously in their daily work.

Focusing on the goal of building a financial power, deeply understand the significance of cultivating and promoting a financial culture with Chinese characteristics

This is an inevitable requirement for practicing the "Two Maintenances" and implementing the major decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee. The Central Financial Work Conference clearly proposed that "we should vigorously promote the fine traditional Chinese culture in the financial system, and adhere to honesty and trustworthiness, pursuing profits with righteousness, prudence and steadiness, upholding integrity and innovation, and abiding by laws and regulations." On January 16, 2024, General Secretary Xi Jinping further put forward the scientific connotation of the "Five Dos and Five Don'ts" at the opening ceremony of the special seminar for leading cadres at the provincial and ministerial levels on promoting high-quality financial development, namely "Be honest and trustworthy, and do not cross the bottom line; pursue profits with righteousness, and do not be mercenary; be prudent and steady, and do not seek quick success and instant benefits; uphold integrity and innovate, and do not deviate from reality to emptiness; abide by laws and regulations, and do not act recklessly". This provides a fundamental basis for cultivating a financial culture with Chinese characteristics and an action guide for consolidating the cultural foundation of the gold market. Cultivating and practicing a financial culture with Chinese characteristics is a clear requirement put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping for the financial industry and a major decision and arrangement made by the Party Central Committee in the financial field. As part of the financial industry, the gold market must clearly uphold politics, fully implement this arrangement, and consciously maintain a high degree of consistency with the Party Central Committee in ideology, politics, and actions.

This is an inevitable requirement for practicing the "Two Combinations" and preserving the root and soul of China's gold market. The financial culture with Chinese characteristics inherits the fine essence of traditional Chinese culture, integrates the requirements of the times of socialist core values, demonstrates modern financial elements and concepts, and adheres to the Marxist standpoint, viewpoint, and method. It is in the same line as the fine traditional Chinese culture and the basic principles of Marxism, having both a "root vein" and a "soul vein". Cultivating and promoting a financial culture with Chinese characteristics in the gold market is a concrete manifestation of practicing the "Two Combinations" and preserving the root and soul. In terms of the "root vein", many important elements in the fine traditional Chinese culture, such as the concept of integrity of "a promise is worth a thousand gold", the economic ethics of balancing justice and benefit, the way of thinking of maintaining balance and harmony, the philosophical thought of integrating knowledge and action, and the pursuit of justice of unyielding integrity, have a good guiding role in forming a new trend of civilization in the gold market. Promoting the fine traditional Chinese culture in the gold market helps strengthen cultural confidence, deepen the creation of Chinese characteristics in the gold market, and enhance the cultural soft power of China's gold market. In terms of the "soul vein", the basic principles of Marxism provide us with a scientific world outlook and methodology. Combined with China's financial reality, they have formed a financial theoretical system with Chinese characteristics, providing a solid theoretical support for the development of the gold market. Adhering to the people's position of Marxism and combining the basic principles of Marxism with the specific reality of the gold market is the fundamental way and inevitable path to ensure that the gold market maintains the correct development direction and promotes the construction of Chinese-style modernization.

This is an inevitable requirement for practicing "finance for the people" and promoting the high-quality development of the gold market. On the one hand, to promote the gold market to better serve the real economy and the people, there is an urgent need to cultivate and promote a financial culture with Chinese characteristics. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "finance should serve the real economy and meet the needs of economic and social development and the people." Promoting innovation around better serving the real economy and facilitating the people is an inherent requirement of the financial culture with Chinese characteristics and the starting point and goal of the development of the gold market. This requires us to adhere to the guidance of the financial culture with Chinese characteristics, uphold honesty and trustworthiness, and uphold integrity and innovation, guide market participants to pay more attention to the healthy development of real enterprises in the gold industry chain, the actual needs of new productive forces, and the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and investors in the gold market, and then provide more accurate and effective market services. On the other hand, to promote the gold market to strengthen the bottom-line thinking and better coordinate development and security, there is an urgent need to cultivate and practice a financial culture with Chinese characteristics. The Central Financial Work Conference emphasized that "we must adhere to taking risk prevention and control as an eternal theme of financial work." Adhering to prudence and preventing and controlling major risks is not only a fundamental task for promoting the high-quality development of the gold market but also an important connotation of the financial culture with Chinese characteristics. This requires us to vigorously promote a culture of prudence and compliance, guide market participants to continuously enhance their bottom-line thinking and sense of urgency, and jointly safeguard the risk bottom line of the gold market.

Focusing on the practice of the gold market, accurately grasp the specific connotation of the financial culture with Chinese characteristics

"Be honest and trustworthy, and do not cross the bottom line" means to emphasize "a promise is worth a thousand gold", adhere to seeking truth from facts, adhere to the spirit of contract, and abide by the rules and professional ethics of the gold market. As an ancient saying goes, "Honesty is the bond of the world." Honesty is a cultural treasure of the Chinese nation and the cornerstone of the development of the market economy. As a financial infrastructure under the leadership of the Party and a global financial market, the gold market should adhere to honesty as the foundation and keep its promises. For the Shanghai Gold Exchange, which belongs to the financial industry and is also a state-owned unit, being honest and trustworthy means guiding cadres and employees to practice the "four-in-one" team spirit, resolutely be loyal and honest to the Party, strictly implement the reporting system for important matters, not be perfunctory, not be "two-faced people", and be loyal to the cause of the Party, the performance of duties by the central bank, the development of the exchange, and their own positions. For market participants, they should not only strictly abide by market rules and physical standards in the market, not disrupt the order in transactions, ensure the quality of physical goods in delivery, timely兑付 in fund settlement, strictly abide by mutual agreements in gold and silver lending, and establish a good market reputation, but also strictly abide by moral bottom lines and professional ethics outside the market, operate with integrity, exercise strict self-discipline, not produce or sell fake and shoddy products, not deceive trading counterparts and the general consumers, and consciously set an example of honesty and trustworthiness.

"Pursue profits with righteousness, and do not be mercenary" means to emphasize "putting righteousness before profit", doing things with conscience, insisting that profits serve the exertion of functions, and fulfilling the social responsibilities of the gold market. The Chinese nation has always advocated that "a gentleman takes righteousness as his essence" and emphasized that "wealth and honor obtained through unrighteous means are like floating clouds to me." The combination of righteousness and profit is an important embodiment of the moral and business concepts of the Chinese nation in social activities. As part of the financial industry, the gold market has dual attributes of functionality and profitability. Gold itself, as a super-sovereign currency and the final international means of payment, is an important strategic resource for stabilizing national economic and financial security. In its production, trading, investment, and consumption, it is more necessary to adhere to a correct view of righteousness and profit and achieve "putting righteousness before profit". For the Shanghai Gold Exchange, whose services are public services, adhering to pursuing profits with righteousness means adhering to the business philosophy of taking the people as the center, taking national interests as the mission, taking serving the performance of duties by the central bank as the responsibility, and taking the steady development of the gold market as the goal, orienting towards protecting public interests and public welfare, resolutely putting functionality first, not aiming at profit, and earnestly fulfilling social responsibilities. For market participants, real enterprises in the gold industry chain should adhere to the principles of green, low-carbon, and sustainable development in their mining, utilization, circulation, and recycling links, and not only pursue maximum profits while ignoring environmental protection and ecological balance; member units engaged in precious metal trading and investment should adhere to legitimate ways of making money, not manipulate the market, seek profits through violations, not damage the interests of investors, or affect market stability.

"Be prudent and steady, and do not seek quick success and instant benefits" means to emphasize "progressing step by step", establishing a correct view of operation, performance, and risk, not coveting short-term interests in gold market business, and not taking excessive risks beyond one's ability. The fine traditional Chinese culture emphasizes that "haste makes waste, and focusing on small gains will prevent great things from being accomplished." In recent years, with geopolitical turbulence and frequent local conflicts, price fluctuations in the gold market have intensified, and the unsafe, unstable, and uncertain factors it faces have increased significantly. To maintain the stable, controllable, and healthy development of the gold market, prudence and steadiness are important secrets. For the Shanghai Gold Exchange, adhering to prudence and steadiness means taking risk prevention and control as an eternal theme, adhering to both breaking and establishing, and establishing first before breaking in the construction of gold market systems, adhering to making progress while maintaining stability and carefully verifying in the opening up of the gold market, adhering to a systematic concept and bottom-line thinking in its own governance, looking at both the present and the long-term, promoting both development and security, and firmly holding the bottom line of preventing systemic risks. For market participants, it means focusing on the main business and operating steadily, always being prepared for danger in times of safety, enhancing risk awareness, not engaging in excessive speculation or seeking overnight wealth in market transactions, not engaging in blind expansion or seeking huge profits with small investments in business development, and should focus on creating long-term value rather than pursuing short-term interests to prevent "haste makes waste".

"Uphold integrity and innovate, and do not deviate from reality to emptiness" means to emphasize "a sense of purpose", adhere to the people's position of Marxism, keep in mind the fundamental purpose of serving the real economy, and promote innovation closely around the actual needs of real enterprises in the gold industry chain and market participants. Traditional Chinese culture emphasizes "understanding the normal and clarifying changes" and "upholding integrity and making innovations". The essence and original aspiration of the gold market are to standardize gold standards, form fair prices, provide efficient sales channels for gold producers, reliable purchase channels for gold processors and retailers, and safe and convenient investment channels for the people. Upholding integrity means adhering to the original aspiration of Marxist standpoint, viewpoint, and method, and the laws of the development of the gold market; innovation means breaking through fixed thinking patterns and inherent concepts, further optimizing services, enriching products, and improving quality and efficiency. For the Shanghai Gold Exchange, upholding integrity and innovating means focusing on providing better trading, delivery, clearing, and lending services to the market, providing more fair and influential RMB gold prices to promote business innovation, focusing on better meeting the people's demand for gold investment to promote product innovation, and focusing on realizing the modernization of the governance system and governance capacity to promote institutional innovation. For market participants, financial institutions such as banks, securities, insurance, and funds should base themselves on their functional positioning in the financial industry, take serving the real economy as their fundamental purpose, increase support for major strategies, key areas, and weak links, and strive to do a good job in the "five major financial tasks"; real enterprises in the upstream and downstream of the gold industry chain should promote technological innovation, model innovation, and design innovation closely around the high-quality development of their main business and the requirements of green and low-carbon development, and not deviate from their main business or deviate from reality to emptiness.

"Abide by laws and regulations, and do not act recklessly" means to emphasize "rules and standards". All practitioners in the gold market must abide by laws and regulations, comply with market supervision requirements, and operate legally within the scope permitted by supervision. China's traditional legal culture advocates the combination of morality and law, and the use of both etiquette and law, emphasizing that "law is the balance of the country and the criterion of the times." Gold has complex attributes, including currency, finance, and commodities. The industrial chain is long. Market participants in the gold market, especially off-exchange participants, are extensive and uneven. Irregular and illegal businesses are highly hidden and difficult to monitor and handle. Illegal and irregular phenomena still exist. This requires us to enhance the awareness of the rule of law and rules. For the Shanghai Gold Exchange, abiding by laws and regulations means working together to promote the improvement of the legal system of the gold market, clarify regulatory boundaries, improve the market supervision system and mechanism, and ensure that all business operations and regulatory measures are based on the law; cooperate with regulatory authorities to strengthen institutional supervision, behavioral supervision, functional supervision, penetrating supervision, and continuous supervision, and increase the intensity of cracking down on illegal and irregular behaviors. For market participants, they should take compliance with laws and regulations as the bottom line of operation, not evade taxes, not engage in ticket scalping or ticket fraud, and not participate in illegal gold trading, etc.

Focusing on the theme of high-quality development, using the financial culture with Chinese characteristics to lead the construction of a new ecology in the gold market

Make efforts in "planning", strengthen work coordination, and strengthen organizational leadership. First, strengthen top-level design and include it in key work. On the basis of deeply understanding the essence and rich connotation of cultivating a financial culture with Chinese characteristics, the Shanghai Gold Exchange should take cultivating a financial culture with Chinese characteristics as an important political task to implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on financial work and deepen the construction of team culture, study and issue implementation opinions on cultivating and practicing a financial culture with Chinese characteristics in the gold market, and clarify the key measures and practical requirements for implementation. Second, improve the working mechanism and form a joint work force. The Shanghai Gold Exchange will continue to adhere to and strengthen the Party's overall leadership, build a working mechanism where the Party Committee exercises overall leadership, functional departments take the lead in planning and promotion, and various departments and subsidiaries jointly promote and implement, and strive to enhance the joint work force; take cultivating and practicing a financial culture with Chinese characteristics as a key annual Party building task, include it in the supervision of the ideological work responsibility system and the inspection and assessment of the responsibility for the construction of a clean and honest government, and urge various departments and subsidiaries to effectively integrate the "Five Dos and Five Don'ts" requirements into all aspects and links of internal governance. Third, conduct in-depth research and learn from useful experiences. The Shanghai Gold Exchange will do a good job in desk research, in-depth study of theoretical articles and interpretive articles on cultivating and practicing a financial culture with Chinese characteristics by the Party Committee of the People's Bank of China and various financial institutions, and grasp the specific connotation of the "Five Dos and Five Don'ts" in combination with the reality of the gold market; conduct field research, go to member units and market participants to conduct in-depth investigations and studies through joint learning and co-construction, symposiums and exchanges, etc., exchange experiences and practices, and collect opinions and suggestions.

Make efforts in "cultivation", strengthen cultural promotion, and strengthen education and guidance. First, do a good job in theoretical study. The Shanghai Gold Exchange will rely on platforms such as the Party Committee Central Group, the branch's "Three Meetings and One Lesson", and the youth theoretical study group to in-depth study Xi Jinping's cultural thought, "Xi Jinping on Financial Work: Selected Expositions", and the spirit of the Central Financial Work Conference, and deeply understand the scientific connotation of the financial culture with Chinese characteristics. Second, do a good job in exchanges and discussions. The Shanghai Gold Exchange will integrate the cultivation of a financial culture with Chinese characteristics with the construction of a clean culture and team culture, organize activities for all staff to discuss team spirit, widely collect "golden ideas" for cultivating and practicing a financial culture with Chinese characteristics, and enrich and improve the "four-in-one" team spirit and departmental sub-cultures of the Shanghai Gold Exchange. Third, do a good job in internal publicity and implementation. The Shanghai Gold Exchange will rely on platforms such as the "Gold Window" to compile and publish a series of promotional videos, rely on the "Gold Bookstore" reading club to hold reading sharing sessions, rely on the SGE Youth Lecturer Group to hold special lectures on the financial culture with Chinese characteristics, and rely on trade union groups to hold financial culture calligraphy, painting, and photography exhibitions, and strive to create a strong atmosphere; fully explore people and events around us, and do a good job in publicizing and reporting positive and negative typical cases. Fourth, do a good job in external promotion. The Shanghai Gold Exchange will integrate the cultivation of a financial culture with Chinese characteristics with investor education and market promotion, and strive to hold educational and promotional activities with cultural characteristics and quality; strengthen cultural education in public welfare educational activities such as the "Gold Lecture Hall" and "Exploring China's Gold Market", and strive to use cultural power to help improve the behavioral norms, moral cultivation, and innovative vitality of the gold market.

Make efforts in "practice", integrate into market business, and strengthen guidance according to circumstances. First, focus on honesty and trustworthiness, and promote market performance and compliance with commitments. The Shanghai Gold Exchange will improve the physical management system for gold refining enterprises, strengthen supervision and inspection, strengthen quality inspection risk prevention and control, and ensure the quality of stored physical goods; deepen the construction of multi-session pre-clearing, multi-link clearing, and multi-level settlement mechanisms, strengthen the construction of central counterparty clearing mechanisms, and strive to prevent clearing and settlement default risks; continue to promote the construction of a self-discipline mechanism in the gold market, strengthen self-discipline management in the gold market, and guide market participants in the gold market to abide by market rules and professional ethics. Second, focus on pursuing profits with righteousness and actively serve national strategies. The Shanghai Gold Exchange will earnestly assume the mission of being a pioneer in RMB internationalization, deepen exchanges and cooperation between domestic and foreign markets, and continue to expand the application of RMB-den